1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an optical fiber adapter and more particularly, to a tightly mountable optical fiber adapter which has a shell member combined with a base plate and two side panels of a mounting spring clip, and each side panel has third elastic parts and first elastic parts for tightly clamping front and back sides of a panel with no gap when the shell member is mounted into an installing hole of the panel, whereby the entire combination structures of the optical fiber adapter and the panel can be securer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with rapid development in communication technology and internet, data center venders and telecommunication venders make efforts in fields of high density, high transmission rate, large volume and intelligent equipment. In order to solve the requirements for higher data transmission rate, smaller occupied space and lower power consumption, cabling systems which are an important constitution of physical infrastructure are paid more attention. Electric cables and optical fiber transmission system are two basic transmission mediums in cabling system of the data center. Compared with the electric cable transmission system, the optical fiber transmission system has advantages of larger bandwidth, higher transmission rate, longer transmission distance, thinner volume, better anti-EMI and nice confidentiality, so the optical fiber transmission system will definitely become the future trend.
The optical fiber adapter is a member which is not equipped with light source and widely used in optical fiber transmission system for detachment and connection between optical fibers. Ends of the two optical fibers are precisely aligned with each other and connected through the optical fiber adapter, and the optical signal outputted from the optical fiber of the transmitter can be coupled to the optical fiber of the receiver in maximum degree. Generally, there are many types of small-sized packaged optical fiber connectors, the connector widely used in its field is SC type or LC type, and the LC type optical fiber connector has 6.25 mm of core pitch and 1.25 mm of core alignment and two LC type simplex connectors can then be assembled as a duplex connector. Therefore, the LC type optical fiber connector not only has advantages in size and precise assembly alignment, but also has flexibility in applications of simplex and duplex transmissions both.
However, the plurality of optical fiber connectors are aligned and connected with each other through the internal pipe of the optical fiber adapter. Upon actual application, the user can select the pipe made of ceramic or copper, having high precise dimension, mechanical durability, and very low insertion loss and reflection loss, so that the loss in cross connection between the optical fibers can be ensured to be very low. Please refer to FIG. 10. A traditional optical fiber adapter includes a shell member A defining a plurality of accommodating cavities A1 therein, and sockets A10 are disposed at outer openings of the accommodating cavities A1 respectively, and a central sidewall between each two accommodating cavities A1 defines an optical fiber pipe (not shown in FIGs) transversely penetrated therethrough. Wing plates A2 are respectively protruded at two opposite sides of central portion of the shell member A. Moreover, the shell member A is further combined with a U-shaped installing device B which has elastic fasteners B1 disposed at two opposite lateral sides thereof and obliquely extended towards the wing plates A2 respectively, and while the shell member A is mounted in the installing hole (not shown in FIGs), the wing plates A2 are abutted with a front side of the panel and the elastic fasteners B1 of the installing device B are elastically deformed first to cross the installing hole and then moved to back side of the panel, therefore, the shell member A can be mounted on the panel by a manner of cooperating the wing plates A2 with the elastic fasteners B1.
However, manufacturers may apply panels with different thicknesses, a larger gap may exist between the elastic fastener B1 and the panel after the shell member A is mounted on the panel, so the shell member A is easy to longitudinally swing or shake subject to plugging or impact force when a connecting part of the optical fiber connector is inserted into the accommodating cavity A1 of the shell member A, and it cause that the optical fiber adapter has insufficient pulling out resistance and fastening force of, and it is hard to ensure the structural stability for plugging connections between a plurality of optical fiber connectors through the shell member A, and even the function of optical signal transmission is affected possibly.
Please refer to FIG. 11 which shows other traditional optical fiber adapter. The shell member A of this optical fiber adapter is combined with an installing device B at central portion of a top wall thereof, and the installing device B includes an arched fastening sheet B2 in this embodiment. When the shell member A is inserted into the installing hole of the panel, the wing plates A2 are abutted with the front side of the panel and the fastening sheet B2 is elastically deformed to abut with an inner sidewall of the installing hole for fastening. However, when the optical fiber connector is plugged or impacted to the shell member A, the fastening sheet B2 is still longitudinally elastically deformed to swing or shake with smaller degree.
Moreover, the manufacturer also developed an optical fiber adapter capable of avoiding the shell member A from swinging or shaking subject to external force when the shell member A is installed in the installing hole of the panel. Please refer to FIG. 12 through 14. As shown in FIGs, the shell member A of this traditional optical fiber adapter is combined with an installing device B which has elastic fasteners B1 formed at two opposite lateral sides thereof and obliquely extended towards the wing plates A2 respectively. The installing device B has a first spring clip B3 and a second spring clip B4 respectively formed at upper and lower sides of the elastic fasteners B1 thereof, and the second spring clip B4 is outwardly bent. An end of the first spring clip B3 is downwardly extended first and then inwardly bent to form an abutting end B31 corresponding to the second spring clip B4. When the shell member A is mounted into the installing hole C1 of the panel C, the wing plates A2 are abutted with the front side of the panel C and the elastic fastener B1 of the installing device B are elastically deformed to cross the installing hole C1 and then moved to the back side of the panel C and, meanwhile, the abutting ends B31 of the first spring clips B3 and the second spring clips B4 are respectively abutted with the lateral walls of the shell member A and the inner sidewall of the installing hole C1, so as to avoid the shell member A from swinging or shaking. However, a larger gap still exists between the elastic fastener B1 of the installing device B and the panel C, so the shell member A is still easy to longitudinally swing or shake while the optical fiber connector is plugged or pulled. Therefore, how to improve the structural stability in plugging connection after combination between the shell member A and the panel C is a key point in designing the structure of the installing device B.